About Me-email is... grant.go@aol.com

Monday, March 21, 2016

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Prices of spot LNG for April delivery to Asia averaged $4.46 per MMBtu, according to latest Platts Japan/Korea Marker data for month-ahead delivery.

At $4.46/MMBtu, the April JKM was 38.7 percent below prices for the same delivery month in 2015.Platts adds in its report that the latest marker for April delivery is also at the lowest monthly average level seen since July 2009, when the monthly average for August-delivered cargoes was $4.23/MMBtu.Sentiment for April and further out in May continued to remain bearish due to expectations of extra supplies from both new and recently commissioned projects in the United States and Australia, as well as additional volumes from the Angola LNG project starting in the second quarter of 2016.The JKM had begun the trading month at $4.7/MMBtu, before sliding to an intra-month low of $4.25/MMBtu in the first half of the month. Expectations of oversupply from the projects coming online weighed on the market sentiment, Platts said.However, the downward pressure on prices was short-lived, as demand for April cargoes emerged at the same time from several buyers looking to quickly fill their April positions. Buy tenders from Argentina, PTT, SK, Posco, GSPC, Gail, and IOC for prompt April cargoes reversed the downward trend in prices. The Platts JKM rebounded back up to $4.60/MMBtu by March 11.Max Gostelow of Platts said “While there are still valid concerns that 2016 will be an oversupplied market for most of the year, it’s evident that if buyers all adopt the same attitude and all wait for prices to bottom out before entering the market to buy cargoes, then we could definitely see more volatility in the markets like what has happened in early March.”He added, however, that the price recovery has stalled as the market expects sellers who had bid unsuccessfully into Argentina’s 15-cargo tender to make those volumes available to the spot market.“We are also noticing that the Qataris are growing increasingly competitive on price due to their long position, and offering very good price for volumes delivered to their (Long)term buyers,” Gostelow said.The price of fuel oil, a possible competing fuel, decreased 53.6 percent year over year, while thermal coal was down 24.8 percent from the same month in 2015.http://www.lngworldnews.com/platts-april-lng-spot-prices-to-asia-plummet-yoy/

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How does Woodfibre LNG or Petronas make financial returns with these prices...Longterm LNG contracts are being inked for less money than the cost of getting the gas out of the ground...Then you have to add-on the cost of pipelines hundreds of miles long, and the cost of liquefying the gas and then transporting it across the Pacific Ocean....

Canadian taxpayers will have to pay $billions to the proponent for inflated lng terminal build costs, with the lion's share of the build cost occurring in South Korea or China(not money spent in Canada)

The current world LNG glut will not end until 2025 or later, perhaps never if major energy companies decide to have multiple LNG terminals all coming online at the same time(mid 2024-2025)...

Here in British Columbia the BC Liberal government is hell-bent on spending probably $15 billion dollars on Site C dam to power up a money losing industry...

Christy Clark and the BC Liberal government are prepared to sacrifice one of Canada's few remaining salmon bearing super rivers...The Skeena River..

With LNG longterm prices in the tank, ...Site C dam($15 BILLION DOLLARS, WITH NO BUSINESS CASE PRESENTED, NO BUSINESS CASE TO JUSTIFY THE COST OR NEED) ...$12 billion for Petronas's terminal in Prince Rupert to be paid by the Canadian taxpayer...

$27 billion dollars Petronas must return in tax revenue to British Columbia and Canada just to get back to square one, and that's not counting the loss of wild salmon, or the loss of Prince Rupert tourism and fishing jobs...

That's not counting all the gas drilling credits accrued...

With low LNG prices for the foreseeable future .....How does Petronas find any money to pay the province any tax revenue?...

Qatar has jumped the market and guaranteed themselves longterm market-share at prices that make B.C. gas/LNG a money loser..

Companies, corporations that make no money pay no taxes, in-fact corporations that lose money write the losses off against any future profits...

I understand that gas drillers and rig workers in Northeast British Columbia are desperate for work, I understand they're demanding approvals by the federal Government to ensure their economic future...Unfortunately those oil and gas workers are prepared to sacrifice fishers and First Nation food sources and thousandsof salmon related jobs in other jurisdictions..

Jobs come, jobs go, we used to have 50,000 more forestry workers, raw log exports and massive high-speed mills have brought an end to those jobs...We once had thousands of commercial fishing boats and a vibrant fishery in B.C...That industry is a mere shadow of its former self..

We once built hardware and manufactured near everything we needed in Canada and the USA...Those jobs were shipped out to Mexico and China...Those jobs aren't coming back..

The corporation and corporate mindset only cares about profit and finding ways to avoid paying taxes..

Petronas PNW LNG and Woodfibre LNG wouldn't pay any monies to Canada or British Columbia for at least a decade, and that was when prices were above $15 dollars per MM BTU,s .....

Renewable energy investment is soaring, Asia, and Japan in particular are embracing both nuclear power and renewable power..

It would be cheaper in the long-run to just send Northeast B.C. a $billion dollars per year for the next 27 years and have the north re-work their economy...

Lastly, if Petronas wants to go-ahead and build an LNG terminal it must find a new location..

It would be bad enough to frack the hell out of the north, waste all that water, pollute ground water, destroy caribou migration routes, cause earthquakes, all to add 30% to British Columbia's total GHG emissions making impossible to meet mandated by provincial law GHG reduction targets...To do all that, to never ever see the money subsidized to Petronas returned to taxpayers....To do all that and wipe out a Salmon super river, destroy a food source and cost tourism, fishing jobs is pure madness..

Written by Grant G

____________PETALING JAYA, March 21 — For the sake of protecting the earth, aboriginal Canadians turned down a whopping C$1.15 billion (RM3.56 billion) offer from Petronas that was seeking their support for a pipeline which they believed would harm a salmon river. UK paper The Guardian reported yesterday Lax Kw’alaams First Nation hereditary chief Yahaan as saying that he believed his impoverished community might have voted to approve the liquified natural gas (LNG) project when the Malaysian state oil giant made the offer last year, but every single member of the indigenous group had rejected it.“Opportunities like that don’t come to your door every day. “But I give my people credit for taking that bold step. They showed their love and their passion for the land and water. No amount of money can compare to the richness of the river and what it gives us,”Yahaan was quoted saying by the paper. Petronas is planning to build a multi-billion ringgit LNG export terminal at the mouth of Skeena, Canada’s second-longest salmon river, an area which lies within the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation’s traditional grounds, to ship LNG out of British Colombia. The Guardian reported that the location of the proposed Petronas project lies directly at an area where hundreds of millions of young salmon fish travel to annually before maturing, also noting that Skeena’s abundant fish population is needed by the First Nations aboriginal groups, the local wildlife and the region’s economy.After the government of Canada’s province British Columbia gave its nod to Petronas for the project despite the Lax Kw’alaams’ rejection, Yahaan and his community members have since last summer been turning the oil firm’s workers away from sensitive areas at the river. Yahaan said the Canadian police escorting workers from Petronas have made verbal threats against his community’s boat patrols, noting:“They said they were watching us from land, air, and water. A police sergeant told me, ‘we could have ripped anyone out of those boats, but we didn’t want to make it seem like we were protecting the corporations.’” The Guardian said the aboriginal group’s rejection of the LNG plant was not merely about wild salmon, but about defending the indigenous worldview of “taking care with the land so that it can take care of people”, rather than supporting a fossil fuel economy with short-term jobs. Yahaan’s community has been getting increasing backing from others, with a few aboriginal groups, local Canadian groups and opposition politicians this January signing the Lelu Declaration meant to call for protection of the area from development. The opposition by Yahaan’s community is seen as putting pressure on Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal government had pledged to better protect the environment.On Saturday, Petronas’ three-year wait for a permit to build the LNG terminal encountered further delay, after the Canadian government agreed to give its federal environmental assessment agency three more months to complete its study of the project’s impact. Yesterday, news wire agency Reuters reported that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency had needed more information from those behind the project for its report initially due on March 22, with the data required to determine if the proposed Petronas facility is“likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects”. .Petronas, which has seen its profits cut by a drop in crude oil prices globally, will also have to face the prospect of lower gas prices — which are now a quarter of the peak levels in 2014. -See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/aboriginal-canadians-snub-petronas-c1.15b-offer-for-pipeline#sthash.3g21eIVK.dpuf

For Immediate ReleaseFirst Nations leaders have rejected BC Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman’s recent comments that the BC Government has the full support of First Nations impacted by the Petronas LNG project proposed for Lelu Island.Faced with a further three month delay mandated by Federal Environment Minister McKenna, BC government officials flew to Ottawa earlier this week in a desperate attempt to convince the Federal government to ignore the clear commitments Prime Minister Trudeau made to combat climate change, reduction of green house gas emissions, make decisions informed by credible science, and rebuild the fractured relationship with First Nations. In a misleading Facebook post referring to the Ottawa trip, Coleman stated that the project “has the backing of local communities and conditional support of First Nations along the entire natural gas pipeline route and at the terminal site.”Coleman’s comment drew immediate criticism from local and regional First Nation leaders in BC.“Our community voted unanimously to reject Petronas’s proposed LNG project on Lelu Island, inclusive of the $1 Billion attached offer. Clearly, the Hereditary Chiefs are the proper title holders to all parts of our territory such as Lelu Island. In this regard, Band Councils do not have any jurisdictional authority. Our Mayor, John Helin, never held a community-wide meeting to secure a proper political mandate to write the highly questionable letter to CEAA which purported to offer qualified conditional support for the LNG project on Lelu Island. We have been betrayed by our elected leader. ”– Hereditary Chief Yahaan (Donald Wesley), of the Gitwilgyoots Tribe of the Lax Kw’alaams“First Nations leaders from the entire Skeena river are standing together in opposition to this project. Upriver First Nations have been side-lined in the environmental assessment of this project all along, and we are standing firm against it. Over 130 of the most respected Canadian and International scientists said last week that this project poses grave risk to our wild salmon, and endorsed the independent science that was ignored in the CEAA process. We cannot allow this project to happen as it is proposed.”– Chief Glen Williams, President of the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs Office“We do not support the PNW LNG project, nor have we been properly consulted by the BC government, which seems more intent on ramming this project through than respecting the First Nations, our hereditary leadership and the health of the Skeena salmon we all depend on. Once again First Nations are being forced to take action because the government refuses to obey the laws of the land. We are salmon people and if we don’t defend Flora Bank, there will be no protection for our salmon. The salmon is who we are, and without them we lose our identity and our future.”– Chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), Office of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs“The entire world, including Petronas and its international investors, the Malaysian Government, the BC Government, and Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal Government, are aware of the deeply entrenched, extensive and broad Indigenous opposition to the proposed PNW LNG project. These well briefed and extensively informed parties can no longer pretend that this is not a significant factor in deciding if the project goes ahead, in addition to the massive detrimental impacts to the environment, critically delicate salmon sustaining habitat and the undeniable fizzling market demand for LNG.”– Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs

Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island is a pristine body of water that
provides recreation, awesome views and clean drinking water to 12,000
people. But just up the hill from this slice of paradise is a
contaminated landfill site that’s threatening the community’s way of
life.

In August of 2013 the B.C. government granted South Island Aggregates a
permit to dump 100,000 tonnes of contaminated soil a year for the next
50 years. The permit allows for a long list of chemicals including,
dioxins, furans, hydro carbons, metals, arsenic, and lead.

The granting of the permit to operate the landfill immediately caught
the attention of Sonia Furstenau of the Shawnigan Lake Residents
Association. Furstenau questioned the decision by the government, and in
an interview with W5 said, “It's uphill from the drinking water source,
and you don't put contaminated landfills up from the drinking water
source.”

It was the beginning of an ongoing legal fight that has dragged on now
for almost four years. Fifteen thousand residents have signed a petition
and hundreds of letters have been written to the provincial Ministry of
the Environment demanding the landfill be closed until a complete
investigation into the environmental impact of the site is complete. The
Residents Association tells W5 it’s concerned with what it sees as
suspicious activity surrounding the awarding of the permit.

Before SIA was given the go ahead to turn the existing rock quarry into
a landfill they were required to hire an engineering company to study
the location of the site, and whether the chemicals would be contained
and not be a threat to the clean water supply of Shawnigan Lake
downstream. The company they hired was Active Earth Engineering.

According to Furstenau, Active Engineering reported back to the
Minister of the Environment that the quarry was sitting on 250 feet of
impermeable rock and that it offered the most amazing natural protection
you could possibly want for a landfill. They claimed it would last
103,000 years.

Despite Active Earth Engineering’s assurances, at least nine
Hydrogeological experts testified before the Environmental Assessment
Board questioning whether building a landfill uphill from the lake was
appropriate, and if the dumped chemicals could be safely contained.
Based on evidence supplied by Active Earth Engineering the government granted the permit.

Not long after the permit was awarded, memos of a secret deal surfaced
between South Island Aggregates, and Active Earth, whose report helped
convince the government to approve the dumping. The deal between the two
companies called for a 50/50 split in future profits from the landfill.
The companies maintain that while signed the deal has not been acted
upon.

The Shawnigan Lake Residents Association also discovered an arrangement
between the then- Chief of the Malahat First Nation, Michael Harry, and
SIA. Harry was offered free road construction work for his reserve,
along with a consultation fee based on 50 cents for every tonne of soil
brought to the site in exchange for not voting against the landfill
site. Mr. Harry has since resigned as Chief of the Malahat First Nation
and the new Chief has now gone on record against the landfill.

W5 requested an interview with SIA President Mike Kelly, but his lawyer
advised him to keep his comments confined to the courtroom. We caught
up with Kelly on the streets of Victoria to question the optics of a
backroom deal with Active Earth, the company hired to do the
environmental assessment, but Kelly wouldn’t comment. The Senior
Engineer at Active Earth, Matt Pye, also refused to talk to W5.

Since the discovery of the secret deal with Active Earth and SIA, and
the arrangement with former Chief Michael Harry, all sides are back in
court. The Residents Association want the government to shut the
landfill down until a complete review of the environmental assessment is
completed.

Despite the on-going assurances of the government, in mid-November 2015
after heavy rains, the community’s worst fears were realized. The
Environment Ministry issued a no drinking and bathing advisory for
anyone near Shawnigan Lake due to a suspected non-containment of surface
water from the South Island Aggregates site.

The drinking/bathing alert was lifted after a couple of days but the
Shawnigan Lake Residents association claims the damage has already been
done. Furstenau told W5 that residents have been drinking from the lake
for decades and are now living in fear and constant stress over the quality of their water.

Okay ... we're back this Saturday with an investigation into a
controversial landfill on Vancouver Island. Victor Malrek's
investigation finds TROUBLE IN PARADISE as he visits beautiful Shawnigan
Lake, B.C. - downstream from a contaiminated soil dump. Local residents
claim concerns about their drinking water were ignored. And there are
tough questions for the owners of the site and the B.C. government.
Saturday 7pm(March 5th/2016) on CTV.

Christy Clark....Mary Polak....There is a blatant, glaring conflict of interest...The company that created an environmental okay for dumping toxic soil above Shawnigan Lake has a financial arrangement in which they profit on every tonne of toxic soil dumped....

Shut the dump site down BC Liberal Government....Water flows downhill..

And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize the report and review documents provided by Active Earth Engineering is flawed, a 100,000 years haven't passed, 5 years haven't passed and toxins are already leeching into a pristine water source for thousands of people..

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Grant G

Unfortunately there is a world glut of LNG, these energy companies and investors only have themselves to blame, these greedy entities swooped in like vultures on Asia(Japan) and figured they could make $billions providing natural gas..

They created a massive glut...With new gas discoveries in nearly every country, with renewable energy leapfrogging fossil fuel investment, with a warming planet along with an economic stall in China...These companies and shareholders are not prepared to lose $billions...

Supply and demand, a massive supply glut AND LITTLE DEMAND...It really is that simple.

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“The Saint John LNG liquefaction project has been placed on hold,” Brent Anderson, a spokesman for Repsol Canada told LNG World News in an emailed statement.Repsol joins a growing number of companies that are delaying or cancelling their LNG developments due to market volatility and low oil and gas prices.“Current market conditions and project challenges make it unattractive for third-parties and off-takers to join the project,” Anderson said.Saint John LNG Development, a unit of Repsol, received in September last year a licence from Canada’s NEB to export up to 8.86 bcm of gas per year for a period of 25 years from the proposed 5 mtpa LNG facility.

Oh indeed, need more...It's not just Canada, proposed LNG projects are being deferred and cancelled everywhere...including this one in Indonesia..

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Japan’s Inpex will delay the development of its multi-billion Abadi LNG project in Indonesia by at least two years, the Indonesian energy regulator SKK Migas said on Wednesday.

According to Amien Sunaryadi, Chairman of SKK Migas, Inpex notified the regulator that it plans to downsize its workforce in Indonesia of around 400 by at least 40 percent as an agreement on the revised Masela plan of development (POD) had not yet been reached.Shell engineers working on the giant LNG project had also been told to look for other work within the company, he said.Inpex pushed the final investment decision on the project until 2020, meaning that the LNG project will not be operational until at least 2026, around two years before the companies’ contract is due to expire.The Japanese company submitted to SKK Migas of Indonesia in November last year a revised plan of development of the Abadi LNG project, as a result of a greater volume of natural gas reserves being confirmed.The revised plan envisions the adoption of a floating LNG plant with an annual processing capacity of 7.5 million tons, bigger then Shell’s Prelude FLNG.However, the Indonesian government has still not approved the plan as it is considering whether the LNG project should go ahead as an offshore facility or be moved onshore.It was recently reported that $6 billion could be saved by Inpex and Shell if Indonesia opts to build the Masela Abadi LNG facility on land instead of offshore.Maritime affairs coordinating ministry official Haposan Napitupulu said that a land-based LNG facility would cost $16 billion while an offshore facility would be in the region of $22 billion.Contrary to the Maritime affairs ministry, SKK Migas believes a floating LNG facility would cost around $14.8 billion, $4.5 billion less than an onshore facility.Inpex currently has a 65 percent operating interest in the Masela block, while Shell holds the remaining 35 percent.http://www.lngworldnews.com/indonesian-regulator-says-inpex-to-postpone-abadi-lng-project/____________

Here is another newsflash....The world LNG glut will not ease if a bunch of these projects all figure to come online in 2025...The LNG game is over...The energy source is just as dirty as coal, maybe even dirtier once one counts all the upstream, downstream emissions, the transportation emissions, and the end buyers burning the actual gas, then factor in all the methane leaks at the wellheads.....Christy Clark and the BC Liberals, along with a stale cheerleading media claim that LNG will displace coal use thus the massive GHG footprint of LNG production should be ignored...Hogwash!The media must start reporting actual facts and data, the practice of merely repeating political and industry hyperbole and spin has gotten way out of hand, Postmedia is no longer a news source, comic books provide more honesty than Postmedia(are you listening Vancouve Sun and Province)The facts must be reported... http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2016/03/petronas-is-out-pacific-northwest-lng.html

One more thing, a commenter on my Petronas is out article(linked directly above)...This anonymous commenter claimed that Shell Canada will make a final investment decision in late 2016...Why is that some people believe a final investment decision is always positive?...More often than not, the decision is no..!

Monday, March 14, 2016

Symptoms of the diseased world disintegrating (by design) proliferate confusingly. (The present, apparently endless War in the Middle East and its gigantic refugee crisis is just one, huge symptom. Other symptoms reach from the centre of “international” organizations down to the smallest municipalities.) All the more reason to see the fundamental core where the symptoms originate. Then non-governmental populations can organize and act. Where It All CentresThe major force at work on the planet is the carefully planned and insanely programmed campaign to erase all organized alternatives to capitalist domination. The activity goes deeper than the mere erosion and subversion of democratic forms. In brief, it’s called, amorphously, ‘globalization’ to disguise its reality, which is the process of placing capital as the unchallenged governing power (a kind of super government) across the planet: the globalization of capital-as-government. That core disease and its accompanying ‘symptoms’ are all there – and all dressed up. They have to be identified and challenged. That means disrupting – re-examining and openly rejecting - the cultural myths that presently disguise the reality of the status quo.This Isn’t The First TimeSince “States” (as imperialist entities) have always partnered with capitalist forces, there is no surprise that the U.S.A. is the core State (though not alone) in the move toward capitalist domination of the planet. Historically, we remember that in the few years after Columbus “discovered” America in 1492, the Pope of the time, Alexander Vl, gave South America to the crowns of Spain and Portugal. (That the Pope didn’t have the legitimacy to “give” that continent is relevant. Illegitimate, criminal assumptions and acts ALWAYS accompany the unilateral assertions of power by wealth and imperial government). After the Restoration of the Monarchy in England in 1660, Charles ll and James ll created free-standing Capitalist Corporate Powers – the East Indian Company, the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Company of Adventurers Trading in Africa (largely a slave-trading operation), etc. Such chartered companies were commonly given powers of government: criminal and civil jurisdiction, law-making, and even war-making powers in the foreign countries they entered. On what and whose legitimacy…? ...Kings – like present imperialist governments - worked very closely with friends, favourites, and wealthy allies until the aims of government and those of private, profit-seeking people and corporations became almost indistinguishable. “War In Our Time”Largely buried in the sweet-smelling cultural myth of our day, the truth of the lunge into despotism by the U.S.A. following the Second World War has been carefully disguised as being the result of consultations, negotiations, agreements ... treaties. The intention, with the creation of the United Nations, that trusting countries would remove the scourge of war from the globe was genuine. The intention was simply pushed aside by the greater power of U.S. imperial ambition, its ‘ownership’ of the NATO military force, and the support it gained for military expansion from its matchlessly wealthy Capitalist Class. The Bretton Woods Conference (1944) in New Hampshire to create a global financial system and to regulate trade was … in fact, a sham. The key division was based, essentially, on U.S. greed. English negotiator John Maynard Keynes – one of the great economists – was seeking a just international order in trade and monetary relations. He proposed methods of creating foreign trade equilibrium (which would have been a gigantic, liberating global initiative).The New Criminal OrderThe U.S.A., intending to be top dog, economic master, major expansionist imperial power, and “policeman” of the world wanted something totally different. And got it – for a few very simple reasons.(1) Britain and much of Europe were bankrupt and, literally, battered to their knees. (2) Russia had been cratered and had suffered the loss of an estimated 22 million people.(3) John Maynard Keynes was dying. (4) No country had the significant power to challenge the U.S.A. (The Soviets presciently remarked that what was set up at Bretton Woods were “branches of Wall Street”.)The fox was let loose among the chickens and has been ravaging the global farmyard ever since. What the world will have to see is that Bretton Woods set the basis for construction of illegitimate (if not criminal) international organizations, courts, commissions and banks … all of which, ultimately, contribute to the greater power of the U.S.A. and the greater wealth of its capitalists and its globally cooperating partners... at the bitter expense of most of the rest of the world.Slick, and apparently ‘global’, the World Trade Organization is, for instance, in fact, an arm of U.S. policy. Most recently WTO has backed a U.S. complaint that India dared to have local content requirements and to offer subsidies to encourage local manufacturers of solar energy equipment. The WTO’s strong-arm tactics, many claim, will seriously disrupt the absolutely essential moves to restorative climate action.Devious manipulations of the Press, conventional Media, electoral systems, climate repair proposals, public infrastructure initiatives, tax policies, and enterprises in foreign places go on continuously. Rapacious looting of small countries like Honduras and Haiti, and the obvious sheltering of gigantic Tax Havens for the super-rich … are relayed as normal. The list goes on and on and on. The pattern is set … almost without exception … by the U.S. Imperial giant pretending to be working collegially and cooperatively with other countries.And Back Home Here In Canada.Canada’s deep involvement is set out by Denis Rancourt in Dissident Voice: “The truth is: there is no Canada….”Plainly, in the way he sets out Canada’s total colonization, Denis Rancourt is right, faultless. But … at the point where he stops action has to begin, new constructions have to be built – a whole new political vision has to be born in Canada ... to join with the shaping political movements and parties in Europe and elsewhere beginning the renewal … that must and will come. The world’s population (to save the planet and its populations) is beginning to move against the Public Relations Fraud brilliantly imposed by the Global Capitalist Class partnered with the gigantic U.S. Imperial Military Machine. And the world’s population will succeed. The overthrow of the insane, destructive partnership will be much easier to do than is supposed by some, for the old saying is still true: “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. ...

Pacific NorthWest LNG project in northern British Columbia and has threatened to walk away if it doesn’t get federal approval by March 31, according to a source close to the project.

the new federal Liberal government is toughening up environmental reviews of major energy projects to regain “public trust” and as it strives to meet international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.......It said in January they would be subject to additional assessment on “direct and upstream greenhouse gas emissions.” A spokeswoman for CEAA did not respond to a request for information about how the new requirements will impact Pacific NorthWest LNG.....After spending an estimated $12 billion to get the project to this stage, and having suffered multiple delays and setbacks, including aboriginal and environmental movement opposition, Petronas has conveyed to federal cabinet ministers it won’t accept additional hurdles.....“They have given Trudeau to March 31 to either approve it as it stands now or they are going to leave,” the source told the Financial Post. “They started off with the Conservatives, and the (environmental) standards are very high.

Well well well, let's cut through the bullshit first....Petronas claims it has spent $12 billion dollars so far on PNW LNG....Where, who, on what....Here is where $6 billion plus was spent..

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Petronas-Progress Energy takeover completed after Ottawa's approval

CALGARY — Malaysian state-owned energy firm Petronas has completed its $6-billion takeover of Progress Energy Resources Corp.The deal won Ottawa’s approval on Friday after having initially been rejected as not being of “net benefit” to Canada.Progress’ shares and debentures are expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday.

You see folks, here this $6 billion dollar takeover of Progress Energy of Alberta was deemed as NOT BEING A NET BENEFIT TO CANADA....That investment added nothing to British Columbia, Progress energy has operations not just in B.C. but in fact has most of their assets are in the USA shale plays..Petronas bought a company, that my friends is not investing in B.C. ...That is merely buying an asset that can be easily sold again...Where was/is the remaining dollars Petronas claims to have spent gone?....

Petronas/Progress energy has been drilling in BC's Northeast....Because...... Progress energy drilled and fracked.....The drilled and fracked gas goes into the British Columbia natural gas supply where it is sold into the B.C. natural gas market and the USA NG market...In other words it's business as usual for Progress energy.....

Why can't the mainstream media suss out the bullshit...the above stories are from The Financial Post...A business newspaper that can't suss out the simplest details...In fact ...This article in the FP today..

They are calling the PNW LNG project "a $36 billion dollar project" and that number is so made up out of whole cloth...

Because we know, Petronas knows, the BC Liberals know, the Financial Post knows that Petronas's proposed PNW LNG project estimated REAL COST is a mere $11 billion dollars and $8 billion plus of that cost will be spent in South Korea..How much proof must we put out there.

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Petronas wants engineering work for B.C. LNG venture to be shifted offshore

Petronas plans to push contractors to shift more engineering work for a proposed B.C. liquefied natural gas venture to lower-cost centres offshore as the Malaysian energy giant squeezes suppliers.

Of the total $11.4-billion in estimated construction costs for the Petronas-led Pacific NorthWest LNG export terminal at Lelu Island, there would be $8-billion worth of imported goods and services spread over a five-year period.

It is in that international component where Petronas hopes to find the bulk of cost savings, but the state-owned company will cast a wide net abroad and in Canada, including having TransCanada Corp. re-examine ways to make its proposed $5-billion natural gas pipeline project more efficient.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/petronas-pushes-offshore-work-for-british-columbia-lng-venture/article21960284/_______________So, Petronas is lying again and The Financial Post is repeating those lies with the ease of a used car salesman..(Hey Vaughn Palmer, you have some competition in the repeating lies from the liars department)Need more, let's unravel the rest of the bullshit from Petronas and the Financial Post..________Not one of the two-dozen groups that proposed LNG export projects has gone ahead due to regulatory delays, rising competition from United States LNG exporters, plummeting prices, and aboriginal and environmental group opposition.The AltaGas-led group proposing the Douglas Channel LNG project stopped development last month and Royal Dutch Shell has delayed its final investment decision on its proposed terminal near Kitimat until the end of this year.

Let's be perfectly clear....Altagas had all the required permits, they had First Nations support from the Haisla, the Federal Government waived the import taxes on their foreign built floating liquefaction facility, Altagas had a export license from the NEB and there was NO Federal EA required for Altagas's little floating facility...what Altagas didn't have was customers....Here is the proof..

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AltaGas calls halt to its LNG project in Kitimat

Lead partner in consortium cites poor market conditions

The consortium’s lead partner, Calgary-headquartered AltaGas Ltd., made the announcement that it was halting development on the $600-million proposal at Kitimat “due to adverse economic conditions and worsening global energy price levels.”“It’s really the manifestation of market conditions,” said AltaGas executive vice-president John Lowe. “We could not secure a customer at any price that would cover our costs.”The news came as a blow to the Haisla First Nation in the region, which, due to the cancellation and delays of other projects, is now watching a “mini-boom” spurred in part by spending on LNG development work go bust.Haisla Chief Councillor Ellis Ross said he received the news by way of a courtesy call from AltaGas on Wednesday evening, which coincided with a council meeting.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/altagas+calls+halt+project+kitimat/11743911/story.html#ixzz42GZibNC

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And Shell Canada....They had a 40 year export license, they had all the required permits from the BC Oil n Gas commission and they too had an environmental greenlight from the Federal Government...And Shell Canada LNG also had First Nation support, what Shell Canada didn't have was paying customers at a price-point that made their British Columbia proposal economical..

Shell has put on hold the final investment decision (FID) for its British Columbia start-up LNG Canada, blaming the slump in oil and gas prices for weakening the project’s prospective returns.The energy giant announced the decision today (4 February), having filed dismal full-year results, including a US$6.5 billion loss. The news comes less than a month after LNG Canada secured a facility permit for its planned terminal in Kitimat, becoming the first proposed British Columbia export project to pass that particular milestone.Today’s news comes as a major setback for Canada’s LNG-export ambitions. Experts ranked LNG Canada among the five strongest prospects out of some 20 proposed export projects in British Columbia. Partners Shell, Mitsubishi, Kogas and PetroChina planned to export 24 million tonnes a year (mta), starting with two 6.5 mta trains and adding two more.___________Need more proof Petronas and The Financial Post is full of shit..Shell Canada had everything, First Nation support, an agreement in place, Shell Canada had/has an Environmental approval, Shell Canada had all the BC Oil n Gas approvals, a 40 year export license from the NEB....Shell Canada had no LNG buyers...Thus they cancelled their project..___________

The BC Oil & Gas Commission (BCOGC) on Tuesday authorized, subject to local safety and environmental conditions, a Kitimat processing and tanker-loading complex for up to 3.7 Bcf/d planned by the group of Shell (50%), PetroChina Corp. (20%), Korea Gas Corp. (15%) and Mitsubishi Corp. (15%) (see Daily GPI, July 6, 2015). The approval is the first of many in the works at the BCOGC, which last year delegated exclusive power to make terminal site construction decisions on the long lineup of BC overseas gas export projects to the commission. LNG Canada previously received federal and provincial environmental approval, hired a construction general contractor, made a power supply deal with provincial government-owned BC Hydro, and lined up benefit agreements with the Kitimat native community.

The LNG Canada group has been working on its export scheme for about five years, and Shell had said it would make a final investment decision about the project in 2016 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 10, 2014).

In the biggest part of the preparations, Shell has emerged as a top producer in the Montney formation, tapping the shale-like and liquids-rich “tight gas” formation straddling northern BC and Alberta for about 410 MMcf/d with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques (see Shale Daily, Jan. 4).

The gas currently goes to traditional markets in Canada and the United States, including northern Alberta thermal oilsands extraction where Shell is senior partner in one of the biggest bitumen mining and synthetic crude upgrading complexes. In announcing the BCOGC permit, Shell indicated full-scale construction remains a considerable time away and is not a sure bet. The company called the ruling “an important step forward” but added that “the project must ensure it is economically viable and meets several other significant milestones including finalizing engineering and cost estimates, supply of labor, and achieving other critical regulatory approvals before making a final investment decision.” Shell has been pulling back across North America and in December sharply reduced its development plans for 2016 (see Daily GPI, Dec. 23, 2015).

All the money Shell Canada is spending on site prep work and logistics is pocket change pennies to that behemoth corporation, they can write it off as a business loss..

Shell Canada can also just walk away and not lose a minute`s sleep over it...

The window of opportunity has closed....Maybe a new round of terminals will be built in the next decade...and or maybe the sheep in the world will wake up to the fact that LNG is the dirtiest fuel, not a bridge fuel and it`s money wasted when countries can spend less money in the longterm by building green renewable energy..

Petronas is pulling a fast one, the ultimatum/threat against Justin Trudeau is mere grandstanding...Petronas is walking away from British Columbia PERIOD....Petronas is merely fanning the flames by falsely blaming Justin Trudeau's carbon tax measures as the cause.....Newsflash..There are no NEW FEDERAL GREENHOUSE GAS RULES..

Nice try Petronas...We knew, we at The Straight Goods reported last year that you were bailing on B.C....And we know it's true because..

The BC Liberals put general revenue monies into the fantasy LNG prosperity fund and..The BC Liberals are spending $millions of taxpayer dollars advertising ...advertising Money for children born..advertising Money for High-tech start-ups..advertising Money for computer tech jobs...The BC Liberals are not advertising any LNG jobs...Hence a BC Government LNG website that is a mere a blank screen..!

Lastly...Petronas's PNW LNG project is a carbon bomb...Forget about any new non-existent federal carbon tax laws or rules...

British Columbia has a GHG law, we are supposed to have 33% fewer greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 over 2009 levels...Either way, Petronas's proposal would increase BC's emissions and total greenhouse gas emissions by 40%..one project, 40% provincial increase in GHG's with one LNG project!..

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

One of the most important histories written in the last twenty-five years by a Canadian (or anyone else) is surely The American Empire and the Fourth World (McGill-Queen’s, 2003) by Anthony Hall. Reading it a second time, I marveled that it has been allowed to pass almost unnoticed in Canada, as has its sequel Earth Into Property (McGill-Queen’s, 2010). The Independent of London described Earth Into Property as one of the most important books of the year (but not, apparently, in Canada).Canadians might puzzle at the oversight, though they need not. For Hall’s work, by accident, brings into evidence ..

(a) Canada’s frightened colonialism..

(b) our sold-out media and fiercely colonial-minded CBC..

(c) and the almost total abdication by Canada’s professional historians of what should be a rich and natural focus for them: the North America that Canada inhabits. When a Canadian writer brilliantly and critically engages the deepest and most disturbing aspects of that subject, a large number of historians in Canada fall into surly, condemning silence – not from a lack of intelligence but as a result of their bottomless colonial indoctrination.The refusal to recognize Anthony Hall’s work especially describes the refusal of Canada’s public thinkers and commentators to face what is the overwhelming censorship faced by any truly critical expression revealing Canada’s profound colonial-mindedness, its slavish adoration of U.S. behaviour, and its refusal to weigh (as Anthony Hall insistently does weigh) the Canadian and global significance of a powerful country (the USA) founded on lies, built on lies, and conducting maniac foreign policy based on lies and the “exceptionalist” theory that whatever the USA does in the world is good – even while it pillages the world’s wealth, erases the records of great civilizations, and leaves millions of innocent people dead or diseased and desperate – lost in a wasteland of (almost] meaningless carnage.To begin … the very origin of the USA is lied about in a massive falsification of history. The Truth of U.S. BeginningsGrowing rich from the forced labour of driven Black slaves, the (U.S.) colonial white population was also rapaciously killing or “removing” the owners of the land – the American Indians.In 1763, by Royal Proclamation, all white occupants of North America were ordered to treat the native people fairly and to set off a large “Indian Country’ for that people to use. To police the humanitarian edict, the settling white population was called upon to contribute to the cost of introducing law and order. Enraged, the settlers screamed against “imposed” taxation and the order to act fairly and humanely towards the ‘First Nations’ of the land. The white population was not rejecting “taxation without representation” (a famous U.S. lie). It was rejecting the rule of law in (what was to become) the USA. Their insistence upon the ‘right’ to act brutally and criminally outside humane behaviour and law has marked U.S. history always.To uphold their denial of the rule of law, the (U.S.) colonists had to throw off British government. And so the ruling class of the (U.S.) colonies conducted a War for Independence (not a Revolution). Normally a revolution is fought to remove an oppressing class from power in order to provide greater freedom and justice to another, more numerous class that is oppressed and that takes over the levers of power.A U.S. Revolution??In the case of the (U.S.) colonies – instead, the lawless, bandit, dominant class fought to be free of the governing class of England that sought fairness for the native population and the introduction of the rule of law at the frontiers of the expanding white community. The great “freedom” document of the U.S.A. (1776) is called The Declaration of Independence, written mostly by Thomas Jefferson. Like George Washington, first president of the U.S.A., Jefferson was a slave owner. The two men didn’t own a few slaves to do household work and work in their large gardens. Between the two, they owned hundreds of slaves. Samuel Johnson (1708-1784), famous English personality, poet, essayist, biographer, and dictionary maker, couldn’t help asking in 1775: “How is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”And so the noble phrases of The Declaration of Independence ring with falsehood, with intention to mislead … with lies. “We hold these truths to be self-evident”, Jefferson wrote, “that all men are created equal”. He goes on to point to the “inalienable right” of all men to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Jefferson did not go on to write: “We, of course, except black men (and women and children) who we will continue to enslave, mistreat violently, and oppress for our profit for almost another hundred years”. Nor did he write: “And we also except the native people of the land against whom we will conduct a War of Extermination until we possess all the land that is theirs.”Indeed, to make sure his readers would not be in doubt, Jefferson described the native people of the land as “merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions”. To add spice to his calumny, Jefferson accused King George the Third of wanting, in so many words, to set those merciless Indian Savages against the peace-loving white settlers on the land.Lying As Continuing PolicyNo lie was too great at the beginning of the USA, and no lie has been too great since then. That is what “American Exceptionalism” means. The U.S. has gone on finding merciless Savages to erase – as it gathers wealth and power all over the world: in Viet Nam, Honduras, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Greece, Iran, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Syria … to name only a few of the places. Wherever the U.S. wants unchallenged power, it names the people or their leaders “merciless Savages”.The Iraq War and the Viet Nam War – both celebrated as built upon deliberately false information – are only two U.S. wars where the flagrant lies used as a pretext to go to war have been globally exposed.All through the nineteenth century Britain controlled the seas … and so the U.S. could not “take” Canada. At almost every Canadian/U.S. diplomatic meeting, however, U.S. representatives urged Canadians to throw off what U.S. officials chose to see as the repressive and abusive British monarchy (which meant to throw off, also, the protection of the Royal Navy). Canada refused.And so a long, long propaganda war has been conducted to teach Canadians to be U.S. colonials, to force Canadians to accept U.S. lies as truth, and to condition Canadians to believe it is “natural” they should assist the USA in its rape and pillage of the planet. That long, long war has gone on and on to make Canada a tool of U.S. greed and exploitation.As I write, the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal government of Canada is being wooed to accept a government (in fact) superior to the Canadian government, made up of representatives of foreign (largely U.S./U.S. connected) private corporations and the sleaze workers for The One Per Cent across the world. That new Super Government is intended to rule that foreign enterprises may sue Canada for untold billions of dollars under claims that Canada has done almost anything to deny or weaken profit made from the activity of those foreign corporations in Canada. In that process Canadians would have no say and Canadian government would be stripped of power to intervene. The new system already at work in NAFTA – (The North American Free Trade Agreement) - is an unbelievable, con-man, high-level racketeering refinement of the lying-basis for U.S. foreign policy and corporate activity - begun with the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of transported Blacks and the military erasure of the native people of the USA. It is criminality raised to a sophisticated level at which top lawyers and investment firms make crime appear to be the smooth, rational, normal conduct of the economic system.Why is the Canadian government even considering such a “treaty”? We know the Opposition Conservative neo-liberal/neo-fascist forces join with their henchmen media clones to spur on the dictatorship of the criminal class. The New Democratic Party presently can’t seem to find its name-tag (and so doesn’t know who it is) in order to act in any visible, powerful, consistent way.For the Liberals there is no excuse for acting against the interests of Canadians. Why then are they seeming to move to ratification of an oppressive treaty that can only wreak havoc on Canadian society and the lives of Canadians?The Canadian people see the failure of the Liberal government in Ottawa. They are beginning to mobilize: Leadnow, Shit Harper Did, The Council of Canadians …. and more. Canadians are going to have to make the Liberal government know it will pay and pay and pay if it sells out to the forces shaping the TPP. The Liberal government, as well, must end the NAFTA treaty … and all other criminal agreements stealing Canadian independent sovereignty. The dirty game of well-disguised criminals erasing Canadian sovereignty has to be exposed and stopped in its tracks.If the Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau won’t stop it, then Canadians must destroy that Liberal government ... as soon as possible … in order to put in power Canadians who will fight for other Canadians … and Canada.
Written by Robin Mathews